In a somewhat surprising move, center fielder Trent Grisham accepted the New York Yankees’ qualifying offer before Tuesday’s deadline, a league source confirmed to The Athletic, solving the team’s immediate need in center field and leaving just left field to fill in the outfield alongside American League MVP Aaron Judge.
Grisham’s acceptance of the one-year, $22.025 million deal came after he was ranked No. 25 on The Athletic’s Free Agent Big Board and projected by Tim Britton to land a three-year, $54 million contract.
General manager Brian Cashman said the Yankees made the qualifying offer to Grisham because “we’re comfortable doing so.”
“This is a very thin outfield market,” Cashman said during the GM Meetings last week. “He had a hell of a year for us, and was one of the big reasons why we had the level of success we did.”
Trent Grisham sends one 4️⃣0️⃣4️⃣ feet for his 30th of the year 😤 pic.twitter.com/LE5TU2WyTB
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) September 5, 2025
Last season, Grisham hit 34 home runs — doubling his previous career-high, set in 2022 with the San Diego Padres. He also set career-highs in OPS (.811), OPS+ (125), RBIs (74) and walks (82) over 143 games.
While he passed the eye test defensively, his speed was down, and he didn’t perform well in terms of fielding run value (minus-3; 29th percentile) or outs above average (minus-2; 32nd percentile) despite having won a pair of Gold Glove awards in the National League in 2020 and ’22.
But, overall, the season was a major turnaround for Grisham, who didn’t play much in 2024 (76 games) after the Padres traded him with Juan Soto to the Yankees the prior winter. Before 2025, Grisham was considered a glove-first talent, having posted a .213 batting average and a 94 OPS+ over his first six major-league seasons.
The Yankees likely extended Grisham the qualifying offer unsure whether he would accept it. As the team briefly pondered selling at this year’s trade deadline, it received inquiries on the availability of Grisham, another league source told The Athletic. So Cashman surely knew which teams might have been targeting Grisham again this winter. Also, with the potential for a work stoppage after next season and changes to the collective bargaining agreement looming before 2027, other free agents might jump at the chance to sign multi-year contracts this offseason.
But not Grisham, who clearly preferred the big payday right away over longer-term security.
The Yankees may be glad to re-sign Grisham, who registered the seventh-highest WAR (3.2), according to FanGraphs, among primary center fielders last season. The Los Angeles Angels’ Jo Adell (37 home runs) and the Minnesota Twins’ Byron Buxton (35) were the only center fielders who hit more homers than Grisham. The Big Board listed the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants, along with the Yankees, as Grisham’s best fits in free agency.
The Yankees are expected to continue pursuing Cody Bellinger, who mostly played left field for them last season but could take over in center field next year. Bellinger is ranked eighth on the Big Board, and Britton projects him to receive a seven-year, $182 million deal.
Cashman also mentioned Jasson Domínguez and top prospect Spencer Jones as possible options in the outfield for next year.
“We could lose both Grisham and Bellinger to free agency and then that puts a lot more stress and pressure on those internal options,” he said. “If one of those guys comes back, it creates nice competition. If both of those guys come back, then maybe it creates trade flexibility. I just don’t know how this stuff is going to play out. I guess stay tuned.”
